ich were used for war and
hunting, and the others as beasts of burden. These last were equipped
in a peculiar manner. Several of the long poles used to frame the
teepees, or lodges, were secured by one end to each side of a rude
saddle, while the other end trailed on the ground. Crossbars lashed to
the poles, just behind the horse, kept them three or four feet apart,
and formed a firm support, on which was laid, compactly folded, the
buffalo-skin covering of the lodge. On this, again, sat a mother with
her young family, sometimes stowed for safety in a large, open, willow
basket, with the occasional addition of some domestic pet--such as a
tame raven, a puppy, or even a small bear cub. Other horses were laden
in the same manner with wooden bowls, stone hammers, and other
utensils, along with stores of dried buffalo meat packed in cases of
raw hide whitened and painted. Many of the innumerable dogs--whose
manners and appearance strongly suggested their relatives the wolves,
to whom, however, they bore a mortal grudge--were equipped in a similar
way, with shorter poles and lighter loads. Bands of {83} naked boys,
noisy and restless, roamed the prairie, practising their bows and
arrows on any small animal they might find. Gay young squaws--adorned
on each cheek with a spot of ochre or red clay and arrayed in tunics of
fringed buckskin embroidered with porcupine quills--were mounted on
ponies, astride like men; while lean and tattered hags--the drudges of
the tribe, unkempt and hideous--scolded the lagging horses or screeched
at the disorderly dogs, with voices not unlike the yell of the great
horned owl. Most of the warriors were on horseback, armed with round
white shields of bull hide, feathered lances, war clubs, bows, and
quivers filled with stone-headed arrows; while a few of the elders,
wrapped in robes of buffalo hide, stalked along in groups with a
stately air, chatting, laughing, and exchanging unseemly jokes.'

On the first day of January 1743, the Indians, accompanied by the
brothers La Verendrye and their Frenchmen, came within sight of the
mountains. Rising mysteriously in the distance were those massive
crags, those silent, snow-capped peaks, upon which, as far as we know,
Europeans had never looked before. The party of Frenchmen and Indians
pressed {84} on, for eight days, towards the foot of the mountains.
Then, when they had come within a few days' journey of the place where
they expected to fin